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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Ambassador Bridge owners sue Detroit over fenced property

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- The owners of the Ambassador Bridge have filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit, alleging the city's efforts to remove a security fence from Riverside Park make the bridge susceptible to terrorist attacks.
The fence in Riverside Park encloses a 150-foot buffer zone around the base of the bridge and improves "the ability of security personnel and law enforcement personnel to guard against persons with malicious intent being able to get too close to the bridge without being observed and counter-measures taken," alleges the suit filed by the Detroit International Bridge Co.
The city moved the suit to U.S. District Court in Detroit on Tuesday after the bridge owners filed it Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court.
The city has filed eviction proceedings against the bridge company in Detroit's 36th District Court, alleging it is illegally occupying part of the park between West Jefferson Avenue and a railway crossing.
"While the city takes the position that the fence was erected without city approval, the city was in close communication with the bridge [[owners) all through the time that the creation of a separate 150-foot zone was being requested and the fence built," the suit brought by the bridge owners alleges. "Moreover, the city has been fully aware of the fence for approximately five years."
Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. has said the bridge owners may be willing to buy or swap land with the city to settle the dispute.
"No matter how big or influential, you must obey the rules," Cockrel told The Detroit News in December.
pegan@detnews.com [[313) 222-2069